EXCLUSIVE: Avondale library getting $1.2M renovation

Original Carnegie building turns page on 100th anniversary

Mar. 9, 2013

Markell Dean, 7, along with step-father James Dugar and mom Laina Dugar, works on his science project at The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County Avondale Branch, which is celebrating its 100th birthday. / The Enquirer/Jeff Swinger

About the Avondale branch

• The Avondale branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County is one of seven still in operation of the nine that were built in Hamilton County from 1906 through 1915 from donations by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. • Carnegie, who paid for 2,500 public libraries worldwide, made two donations totaling $280,000 to build nine libraries in Hamilton County. Besides Avondale, which opened in 1913, the others still in operation are Corryville, Hyde Park, Northside, Price Hill and Walnut Hills. The West End Carnegie library was demolished, and the Carnegie library building in Columbia Tusculum (like those in Covington and Newport) are now used as arts and cultural centers. • The Avondale library, designed by the firm of Garber and Woodward, is of Spanish Colonial style with a domed ceiling, Rookwood tile entrance and decorative iron work. The cost was $45,292. Dedication was March 1, 1913. • Library service actually began in Avondale in 1899, with a delivery station in the back of E.F. Hollenbeck’s Drug Store. In 1900, the service had 207 registered borrowers. • Avondale, initially a white suburb, became the center of Cincinnati’s Jewish community before undergoing dramatic racial transformation during the 1950s and ‘60s. It is now approximately 90 percent African-American. • The 100th anniversary program and entertainment will be from 1-3 p.m. Saturday at the library, 3566 Reading Road. Call 369-4440 or go to www.CincinnatiLibrary.org.

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Another major institution will make a significant investment in this pivotal African-American neighborhood, adding to the momentum that has been building there in the last few years.

The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, which has 41 libraries throughout the county, including the Main Library Downtown, will announce Saturday a $1.2 million renovation of the Avondale branch on Reading Road.

The building renovation calls for new handicap accessibility, restrooms, heating-and-cooling system and lighting, a restored front desk and the conversion of a large staff office back into its original design as a community gathering/lecture room.

News of the renovation will be part of a celebration today of the Avondale Branch Library’s 100th anniversary.

“We are happy to be part of the good things going on in Avondale,” said Kim Fender, library system director.

In the past year alone, Avondale received a $29.5 million Choice Neighborhoods federal housing grant and started the nation’s first community-based anti-violence program – Moral Voice – that has contributed to a sharp decline in the number of homicides, one in all of 2012 after a city neighborhood-tying high of 11 in 2011.

“The library is a fabulous community asset,” said Patricia Milton, president of the Avondale Community Council. “If you look at the use numbers, they are very high and show that people use the library and value the library.”

In 2012, when the Avondale branch was voted the library of the year by the SWON Libraries Consortium (Southwest Ohio Northern Kentucky) the branch circulated 100,000 materials and had 119,000 visits. While the overall circulation number for the branch is near the bottom of the system’s 40 branches, its 42,000 computer sessions ranked 11th. Its 354 programs attracted 6,500 participants.

“You try to design services to meet needs,” Fender said.

In a neighborhood in which 40 percent of the 12,500 residents live in poverty, where three of four people live in rental housing and the same ratio of children receive free- or reduced-price school meals, two of the greatest needs are computers and Internet access.

Markell Dean, 7, of Avondale, was at the library after school Thursday with his parents to finish a science project on “The Lifting Ice Cube Experiment.” He used a glue stick to affix images of ice cubes and a glass of water to poster board.

“We’re here two or three times a week,” Lana Dugar, 28, Markell’s mother, said. They live within walking distance.

“I have done job searches on the computers,” said Dugar, whose husband works in maintenance at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. “Markell uses the computers for school and leisure.”

“I love the games,” said Markell, who attended the summer reading program at the branch and received a free book about Batman for completing all of his assignments.

Cate Malone, 28, the branch’s children’s librarian, is one of three full- and two part-time staff. She leads activities – such as arts and crafts after school Thursday – for a dozen or so children, many of whom come by themselves to the library. Most of the children know her by name, Miss Cate.

“We want to provide the same services in every neighborhood,” she said. Of the renovation, she added, “It just goes to show that this community is not overlooked.”